Decomposing and Coupling Saliency Map for Lesion Segmentation in Ultrasound Images

Complex scenario of ultrasound image, in which adjacent tissues (i.e., background) share similar intensity with and even contain richer texture patterns than lesion region (i.e., foreground), brings a unique challenge for accurate lesion segmentation. This work presents a decomposition-coupling network, called DC-Net, to deal with this challenge in a (foreground-background) saliency map disentanglement-fusion manner. The DC-Net consists of decomposition and coupling subnets, and the former preliminarily disentangles original image into foreground and background saliency maps, followed by the latter for accurate segmentation under the assistance of saliency prior fusion. The coupling subnet involves three aspects of fusion strategies, including: 1) regional feature aggregation (via differentiable context pooling operator in the encoder) to adaptively preserve local contextual details with the larger receptive field during dimension reduction; 2) relation-aware representation fusion (via cross-correlation fusion module in the decoder) to efficiently fuse low-level visual characteristics and high-level semantic features during resolution restoration; 3) dependency-aware prior incorporation (via coupler) to reinforce foreground-salient representation with the complementary information derived from background representation. Furthermore, a harmonic loss function is introduced to encourage the network to focus more attention on low-confidence and hard samples. The proposed method is evaluated on two ultrasound lesion segmentation tasks, which demonstrates the remarkable performance improvement over existing state-of-the-art methods.Comment: 18 pages, 18 figure

Self-driven Hybrid Atomic Spin Oscillator

A self-driven hybrid atomic spin oscillator is demonstrated in theory and experiment with a vapor Rb-Xe dual-spin system. The raw signal of Rb spin oscillation is amplified, phase-shifted and sent back to drive the Xe spins coherently. By fine tuning the driving field strength and phase, a self-sustaining spin oscillation signal with zero frequency shift is obtained. The effective coherence time is infinitely prolonged beyond the intrinsic coherence time of Xe spins, forming a hybrid atomic spin oscillator. Spectral analysis indicates that a frequency resolution of 13.1 nHz is achieved, enhancing the detection sensitivity for magnetic field. Allan deviation analysis shows that the spin oscillator can operate in continuous wave mode like a spin maser. The prototype spin oscillator can be easily implanted into other hybrid spin systems and enhance the detection sensitivity of alkali metal-noble gas comagnetometers.Comment: 6 pages,5 figure

Inhibitive effect of triptolide on invasiveness of human fibrosarcoma cells by downregulating matrix metalloproteinase—9 expression

AbstractObjectiveTo explore the molecular mechanisms of antitumor properties of triptolide, a bioactive component isolated from the Chinese herb Tripterygium wolfordii Hook F.MethodsHuman fibrosarcoma HT-1080 cells were treated with different doses of triptolide for 72 h. Then the expression and activity of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and -9 were measured and the invasiveness of triptolide-treated HT-1080 cells was compared with that of anti-MMP-9-treated HT-1080 cells.Results18 nmol/L triptolide inhibited the gene expression and activity of MMP-9, but not those of MMP-2, in HT-1080 cells. In addition, both 18 nmol/L triptolide and 3 μg/mL anti-MMP-9 significantly reduced the invasive potential of HT-1080 cells, by about 50% and 35%, respectively, compared with the control. Whereas there was no significant difference between the effect of 18 nmol/L triptolide and that of anti-MMP-9 on invasive potential of HT-1080 cells.ConclusionsThese data suggest that triptolide inhibits tumor cell invasion partly by reducing MMP-9 gene expression and activity

OMAE 2009-79849 STRUCTURAL SAFETY ASSESSMENT OF EXISTING ICE-RESISTANT JACKET PLATFORMS IN ICE ZONE

ABSTRACT Until now dozens of offshore structures have been deployed in Bohai bay since the first drilling platform was erected in 1965. The oil and natural gas resources of Bohai Bay are mainly marginal oil fields. It is necessary to build both ice-resistant and economical offshore platforms. Full-scale measurement for many years shows the design of some ice-resistant platforms is not so sophisticated, the most significant is that ice induced vibration is the main which has caused harmful accidents in Liaodong bay of Bohai. In order to ensure security operation, structural safety assessment and life extension become key problems. In this paper, failure modes of ice resist jacket platforms, the related failure evaluation criteria, and risk grade are treated. Combined with monitoring data of ice loads, assessment strategy is presented. Lastly, as an application example, safety assessments of a practical platform in Bohai Bay are carried on

Integrative Analysis of Histopathological Images and Genomic Data Predicts Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma Prognosis

In cancer, both histopathologic images and genomic signatures are used for diagnosis, prognosis, and subtyping. However, combining histopathologic images with genomic data for predicting prognosis, as well as the relationships between them, has rarely been explored. In this study, we present an integrative genomics framework for constructing a prognostic model for clear cell renal cell carcinoma. We used patient data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (n = 410), extracting hundreds of cellular morphologic features from digitized whole-slide images and eigengenes from functional genomics data to predict patient outcome. The risk index generated by our model correlated strongly with survival, outperforming predictions based on considering morphologic features or eigengenes separately. The predicted risk index also effectively stratified patients in early-stage (stage I and stage II) tumors, whereas no significant survival difference was observed using staging alone. The prognostic value of our model was independent of other known clinical and molecular prognostic factors for patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Overall, this workflow and the shared software code provide building blocks for applying similar approaches in other cancers

DNA methylation/hydroxymethylation in melanoma

Melanoma is a malignant tumor of melanocytes and is considered to be the most aggressive cancer among all skin diseases. The pathogenesis of melanoma has not been well documented, which may restrict the research and development of biomarkers and therapies. To date, several genetic and epigenetic factors have been identified as contributing to the development and progression of melanoma. Besides the findings on genetic susceptibilities, the recent progress in epigenetic studies has revealed that loss of the DNA hydroxymethylation mark, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC), along with high levels of DNA methylation at promoter regions of several tumor suppressor genes in melanoma, may serve as biomarkers for melanoma. Moreover, 5-Aza-2′-deoxycytidine, an epigenetic modifier causing DNA demethylation, and ten-eleven translocation family dioxygenase (TET), which catalyzes the generation of 5-hmC, demonstrate therapeutic potential in melanoma treatment. In this review, we will summarize the latest progress in research on DNA methylation/hydroxymethylation in melanoma, and we will discuss and provide insight for epigenetic biomarkers and therapies for melanoma. Particularly, we will discuss the role of DNA hydroxymethylation in melanoma infiltrating immune cells, which may also serve as a potential target for melanoma treatment

Effect of dietary Ginkgo biloba leaf on the growth performance and nonspecific immunity of red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii

This trial investigated the effect of dietary Ginkgo biloba leaf (GBL) on the growth performance and nonspecific immunity of red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii. 180 Crayfishes were randomly divided into three groups. One group was fed with basic diet, whereas the other two groups were fed with diets containing 1% and 3% GBL. After 32 days of feeding, GBL addition tended to increase the body weight gain rate compared with control. In 3% GBL group, the bodyweight gain rate of male crayfish was higher than that of female crayfish. While female crayfish were advantageous in terms of meat yield. Liver-related indexes were influenced by GBL addition and 3% GBL could reduce glutamic pyruvic transaminase and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase as well as total cholesterol in male crayfish, showing its function in liver protection. Moreover, GBL addition effects on liver protection was better in male crayfish than female crayfish